‘Beauty And The Beast’ director Bill Condon has admitted the media has “overblown” the “gay moment” in the upcoming remake of the Disney classic.
Last week, Bill broke the news in an interview with the LGBT magazine Attitude that ‘Beauty And The Beast’ would feature Disney’s first ever “exclusively gay moment”, between villain Gaston and his sidekick LeFou.
However, he now appears to have backtracked somewhat, admitting reports about the moment may have been blown out of proportion.
Addressing the buzz that ensued following the news, he told Screen Crush: “Oh God. Can I just tell you? It’s all been overblown.
When asked whether he wishes the moment could have been a surprise for cinemagoers, he added that he wanted “to not make a big deal of it”, adding: “Why is it a big deal?”
In the original 1991 film, LeFou’s admiration for the dastardly Gaston is never explicitly put forward as romantic, though Bill previously told Attitude things would be made more clear in the remake.
He admitted: “LeFou is somebody who on one day wants to be Gaston and on another day wants to kiss Gaston. It is a nice, exclusively gay moment in a Disney movie.”
He then teased that things would come to a head towards the end of the film, though he refused to clarify exactly how.
It was recently revealed that ‘Beauty And The Beast’ will also feature the first ever interracial kiss in a Disney film, between two new characters.
‘Beauty And The Beast’ will arrive in UK cinemas on Friday, 17 March.